Ethical Literary Interpretation Of Shao Bin’s Loneliness In In The Pond

Ha Jinis the first Chinese writer who won the US National Book Award.In the Pond is his first novel,describing the hardship of Shao Bin who works as a fitter in the Harvest Fertilizer Plant.Annoyed that his housing application has been passed over in favor of Party relatives and cronies,Shao Bin begins drawing satirical cartoons and publishing articles accusing the local Party heads of corruption.Ultimately,the leaders arrange for Shao Bin a satisfying job as a compromise.However,Shao Bin still does not get an apartment.In the course of his fight,he is lonely from beginning to end.In recent years,there are not many researches on In the Pond and few of them are from the perspective of ethical literary criticism.Firstly put forward by Professor Nie Zhenzhao,ethical literary criticism is a new criticism method which aims at interpreting different lives with their moral reasons and makes value judgments from ethical perspective.It contains core terms such as ethics,incest,ethical taboos,ethical chaos,ethical consciousness,ethical situation,ethical identity and ethical choice.From the perspective of ethical literary criticism and along the ethical line of Shao Bin’s loneliness,the thesis attempts to restore the ethical scene in the novel to deconstruct two ethical knots: ethical identity of the protagonist in different situations and ethical features of people around.Thus it dissects Shao Bin’s loneliness and the causes.Through analysis of the text,it can be observed that Shao Bin shows multiple ethical identities--in the family,he is a lonely backbone,working hard by day and indulging in self-admiration at night;in the plant,he is a neglected talent,getting little appreciation from others and failing in escaping;in the course of his fight,he is an isolated fighter,being helpless and ridiculed.Finally,the thesis concludes that Shao Bin’s loneliness is ascribed to his wife’s powerlessness,the bureaucracy showed by leaders,his colleagues’ indifference and the so-called friends’ insignificant help.